Day: 2016-05-31

Deputy Superintendent John Escalante on Sunday promised to beef up patrols in response to the sheer volume of weekend shootings, only to have that promise answered with another 9 people shot by early Tuesday.

To be fair, early reports are indicating that 27 of the individuals that were shot, were shot in or near the Harrison district, one of Chicago’s most violent. It also happens to be one of Chicago’s most heavily patrolled districts.

The bad news; the number of shootings is up from last year

Ahhh but the good news is that over the mother’s day weekend according to one news report just 57 were shot in Chicago.

According to Chicago police, the shootings are being brought about by heated gang conflicts.

Add the warmer weather to those heated conflicts and we may be looking at one hell of a bloody Chicago by the end of the summer. The really bad news is that each month so far in 2016 across the US heat index records have been broken, each month we hear that the last was the hottest on record for the majority of the US.

Heat makes people angry, they are more apt to reach for a gun, and well hey let’s face the truth here, these rival gangs, they were never going to sit down over a coffee and “talk” things out.

The issue with Chicago according to police is weak gun law enforcement, access to guns and gangs. The department has also gone on to say that they have been able to pinpoint the majority of the violence on a group of roughly 1,300 individuals using “data analytics.” If that works, and they can eventually get it to the point of being able to pinpoint exactly when any violence may happen, things should be in relatively good shape right?

I’d give it 50/50 knowing that we human beings are pretty predictable except for criminals. The trick with them is to outthink them. You have to realize that criminals especially those who are any part of organized crime groups are like entrepreneurs, just when you think you have them or the next move they are going to make figured out, they change it up. They spend a lot of time trying to find ways to outsmart and outrun the long arm of the law.

That is a history lesson we can’t afford to forget here.

While it’s great to be able to know why, the bigger issue and questions are, how are the Chicago police planning on putting a stop to it? I know a lot of people are thinking why not just roll up those 1,300 problem children?

That is far easier said than done. Sure they can try to round them all up, but these guys have #2 and #3 guys, someone to take the place of the fearless leaders who got put into jail. Those fearless leaders are also capable of running the organization from inside jails sometimes. Of course you also have to take into account, they don’t plan on getting caught.

Cracking down on that weak gun law enforcement is another great idea, it’s also another idea that is easier spoken about than it is accomplished. Sometimes these guys are not willing to get caught and they are less than willing to go to jail, so they have no problem shooting at a cop, let alone any innocent bystander who happened to walk across that mess. It’s kill or die to them.

The bottom line is this, guns are on the street and individuals who don’t fear death are very willing to use those weapons. It’s clear that threatening them into submission is not working and neither are increased police patrols.

Locking an entire community down is also not easy to accomplish either so locking the daycare overnight is out…

The Chicago Tribune was able to compile the following data:

“So far this year around 1,500 individuals have been shot in Chicago, with at least 250 deaths

While, last year by this time the count was 957 shot with 164 individuals who had been killed.

60 homicides this month have outpaced those in each of the previous three years in Chicago, according to Tribune data. By May 30, 2015, there had been 45 homicides, with 41 by the same date in 2014 and 47 in 2013”

It’s early though, the numbers are still rolling in from the weekend and could be adjusted up or down as police wrap up investigations. For an ongoing as close as one can get count if you are interested, check out the website heyjackass, they keep a pretty close eye on the number of shootings in Chicago if you want a weekly birdseye view of them.

Growing violence can only be contained in a bottle for so long before it begins to spill over. In Chicago’s case that could mean escalating outside of just the most violent part of town.

It’s sad really, Memorial Day Weekend is for remembering and cherishing those who died while serving in active military service.

I wonder how many service men and women are serving anywhere in the world right now who may have seen the news reports about Chicago over the weekend, today or maybe not yet, but who soon will? Out of that how many of those men and women are from or know someone, family or loved ones who are from those parts of Chicago that were hit with violence this past weekend?

It’s a sad twist of fate really, we are supposed to worry about our military members while they are serving, they shouldn’t have to worry about things like this back home.